Microsoft slashed nearly 2,000 jobs across its gaming division on January 25, impacting staff at Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax, and Xbox. And now, we’ve learned that an in-development survival game from Blizzard, codenamed “Odyssey,” has been canceled and most of the team working on the game were let go.
Matthew Vaughn has shown his affinity for the retro spy genre, as evident in Kingsman and even X-Men: First Class. He has also been able to collaborate with some of the most interesting names in his past films. In Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Vaughn was able to get Elton John to appear in the film and even partake in some of the action. His upcoming Argylle looks to be just as outrageous as his Kingsman movies, with the over-the-top visual flare.
Argylle is set to have a single from its soundtrack with Boy George, Ariana DeBose and Nile Rodgers. And now, courtesy of Universal, you can catch the new music video for the song, “Electric Energy.” The retro-sounding tune has the vibe of pop songs of the past. One can even say it might be disco. Plus, the fun of it all is that the cast of the film makes an appearance in the video as they sing and dance along with the music artists. Even the cat gets into the tune and lip-syncs along. Although, one curious absence in the video is Dua Lipa, who comes from the music world.
Vaughn’s association with pop music acts has him having to set the record straight on rumors that Taylor Swift will make the surprise appearance as the mysterious author, Elly Conway, that the trailer teases. Vaughn has told Rolling Stone, “I’m not a big internet guy, and it was actually my daughter who came up to me — this is the power of celebrity and the internet — and said, ‘You never told me Taylor wrote the book!’ And I’m looking at her going, ‘What are you talking about Taylor Swift wrote the book? She didn’t write the book!’ And I was laughing because I was like, ‘It’s not true! She didn’t write the book!’ But my daughter was convinced of it.”
Additionally, Vaughn has plans to make this film a franchise and continue the story with two films, “Book one is about: how did Argylle become a spy? That will be the next film. And then Argylle 2 is – I don’t want to give it all away, but there’s the young Argylle, and that becomes Henry, because Henry loves the idea of doing a proper Argylle movie as well.”
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PLOT: A cantor (Jason Schwartzman), grieving his wife’s loss a year earlier, strikes up an unlikely friendship with an elderly bat mitzvah student (Carol Kane).
REVIEW: Between the Temples is a rather quirky, offbeat comedy. The latest from indie director Nathan Silver, it marks his most accessible, mainstream work to date, although the romantic pairing at the movie’s heart is rather unusual. Indeed, the film has heavy shades of Hal Ashby’s Harold and Maude, although the romantic pairing of Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane (28-year age difference) isn’t as eye-brow-raising as it was in that film.
Granted, the romantic aspect of the movie is underplayed for the most part, with their romance ultimately being a chaste one. The two leads play two lost souls who find each other at a difficult time in their lives. Schwartzman’s Ben is a cantor who’s been unable to sing ever since the death of his wife, who was an alcoholic but sexually exciting novelist who would leave him provocative voicemails. Now living with his two mothers (a terrific Dolly de Leon and Caroline Aaron), he’s reverted to a delayed adolescence, allowing his doting mothers to do everything for him. At the same time, he whines and drinks (he’s such a man-child he drinks chocolate-flavored mudslides).
He’s shaken out of his stupor when he encounters his old music teacher, Carol Kane’s Carla, who is now widowed and seeks to rediscover Judaism following the death of her atheist husband. While she’s initially overbearing and eccentric, Ben finds himself won over by her big heart as the two prep for her ceremony.
Schwartzman and Kane are both unconventional, neurotic performers, and their oddball chemistry makes the premise work relatively well. Both embrace the madcap nature of Silver’s unusual comedy, playing heightened versions of the characters they’d usually play. With him whiny and petulant, Schwartzman’s role could have been difficult to swallow, even if his two mothers, especially Dolly de Leon’s Judith, are intensely overbearing as they try to set him up with a new girl.
Madeline Weinstein plays his competing love interest here, with her the heartbroken daughter of Ben’s Rabbi (played by an amusing Robert Smigel). Compared to Kane’s Carla, Weinstein’s Gabby is young and sexually exciting, and in a fun twist, the actress also plays Ben’s late wife in photographs. In essence, the film shows Ben being torn between his past and present, eventually revealing that his relationship with his late wife, while exciting, was also somewhat destructive. Despite their age difference, the movie clearly wants us to think Carla is a better match for Ben.
It’ll be interesting to see if Between the Temples manages to crossover following its well-received Sundance premiere. It’s polished enough that a big distributor could pick it up, but it’s also so quirky that it likely will appeal to a more niche audience than the average Sundance crowd-pleaser. Whatever the case, it’s well worth seeing when it eventually comes out, especially if you have a Jewish background. It is amusingly satirical about the politics of being a temple member, even one as enlightened as the one depicted here.
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JoBlo.com recently launched a new weekly documentary series called 80s Horror Memories, where each year of the 1980s has five episodes dedicated to it. Looking back at 1980, we discussed Maniac, Dressed to Kill, Alligator, Friday the 13th, The Shining, Prom Night, and The Fog. The second five episodes were a journey through 1981, covering The Funhouse, The Burning, Friday the 13th Part 2, My Bloody Valentine, Halloween II, The Evil Dead, The Howling, and An American Werewolf in London, as well as the careers of horror hosts Elvira and Joe Bob Briggs. The next five were, of course, all about movies that came out in 1982: Conan the Barbarian, The Thing, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, and Poltergeist, with an examination of the short-lived 3-D boom along the way. For 1983, we talked about a trio of Stephen King adaptations, Jaws 3-D, Sleepaway Camp, the rise of TV horror anthologies, and Psycho II. For 1984, we covered the creation of the PG-13 rating, The Terminator, Gremlins, Ghostbusters, and A Nightmare on Elm Street. Our trip through 1985 included Teen Wolf, Re-Animator, A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, Fright Night, Lifeforce, Day of the Dead, and The Return of the Living Dead. For 1986, we covered David Cronenberg’s The Fly, the horror comedies that were released during the year (including Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2), Aliens, the connection between horror movies and heavy metal, and David Lynch’s Blue Velvet. Now we’ve reached 1987, and we got our journey through this year started with Clive Barker’s Hellraiser. In today’s episode, we’re looking at an iconic ’80s film that’s not quite a horror movie, even though it features some horrific moments: RoboCop! You can hear all about it in the video embedded above.
New episodes of 80s Horror Memories are released through the YouTube channel JoBlo Horror Originals every Friday.
Here’s the info on 80s Horror Memories: It’s been over 40 years since the decade that shaped the horror movie industry began and having lived through most of those years personally, we at JoBlo/Arrow in the Head have decided to create a 10-part documentary series in which not only cover every nook and cranny of the biggest horror themes from 1980 to 1989 but also what was happening in the world at the time. Join us as we walk down Horror Memory Lane!
And here’s the info on this particular episode: Paul Verhoeven’s brutal, classic satire on society is possibly the most influential movie of the 1980s, but are we correct in saying it could easily pass as a horror movie, all things considered? Or is it simply an amazing example of visceral science fiction filmmaking? Well, get that 6000 SUX on order and stock up on baby food as we look back on everyone’s favorite 80s law enforcer, RoboCop!
This episode of 80s Horror Memories was written by Adam Walton, narrated by Tyler Nichols, edited by Adam Walton, produced by Berge Garabedian and John Fallon, co-produced by Mike Conway, and executive produced by Berge Garabedian. The score was provided by Shawn Knippelberg. Special Guests: Doug Jones (The Shape of Water) and Patrick Lussier (Drive Angry).
Let us know what you thought of this episode, plus share some of your own ’80s horror memories by leaving a comment!
Two of the previous episodes of 80s Horror Memories can be seen below. To see more of our shows, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals channel – and subscribe while you’re at it!
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One of South Korea’s biggest hits of last year is set to hit stateside. Concrete Utopia is a film that gained acclaim and was a massive hit at the Korean box office in 2023 with an earning of $28.0 million from 3.85 million admissions when the film opened on August 9 of last year. The film was also a Korean Oscar contender. Variety’s review of the film stated, “[Concrete Utopia] places its characters in a desperate, scary, do-or-die situation and then refuses to tell the audience what to think about them. It’s a fractious, blood-soaked drama about the will to survive that feels like Earthquake crossed with Lord of the Flies.”
Variety is now reporting that Concrete Utopia has secured a U.S. streaming release on a platform called Rakuten Viki, a service that specializes in Asian content. The streaming platform has licensed exclusive rights to the film in the U.S. and Canada and will begin streaming it to North American audiences from Friday. The film, which stars Lee Byung-hun (Squid Game, I Saw the Devil, the G.I Joe franchise), Park Seo-jun (Parasite, What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim), and Park Bo-young (Strong Girl Bong-soon, Doom at Your Service).
According to Variety, the movie is “based on the second part of webtoon Cheerful Outcast by Kim Soong-nyung. Concrete Utopia portrays Seoul as devastated by a powerful earthquake which has left the Hwanggoong Apartment complex as the only building still standing. Lee’s character Young-Tak temporarily leads the residents of the apartment complex, but as the crisis unfolds, moral values are tested.”
After the film debuted highly in Korea, it would also screen at a number of film festivals, including the Toronto International Film Festival, Sitges International Film Festival and Fantastic Fest. Jaehee Hong, SVP of content at Rakuten Viki, remarks, “As the appetite for Asian entertainment continues to grow with U.S. audiences, this is a significant moment for Rakuten Viki as we look to raise the bar in offering the latest and most buzzworthy titles to fans.”
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Everyone agrees that white lies can be harmless. Sometimes, we tell them to keep a person’s feelings from getting hurt or to prevent ourselves from getting into too much trouble. However, white lies are slippery, especially if you’ve been telling the same one for years. White lies can evolve to become one of the biggest mistakes you’ll ever make. In the end, it’s best not to tell them. In Peter Farrelly‘s (Green Book, Dumb and Dumber) Ricky Stanicky trailer, three friends invent a friend who conveniently pulls them away from their lives whenever they need a break from reality. Unfortunately, their lie is getting called out, and they need someone to become the person they’ve been lying about for years.
Amazon MGM Studios debuted the Ricky Stanicky trailer on Friday, a Rated-R laugh-out-loud comedy premiering globally on Prime Video on March 7, 2024. The upcoming comedy stars John Cena (Peacemaker, Fast X), Zac Effron (The Iron Claw, Baywatch), Jermaine Fowler (The Blackening, Coming 2 America), Andrew Santino (Beef, Me Time), and William H. Macy (Shameless, Fargo), among others. Jeff Bushell, Brian Jarvis, James Lee Freeman, Peter Farrelly, Pete Jones, and Mike Cerrone wrote the screenplay.
Here’s the official synopsis for Ricky Stanicky from Amazon MGM Studios:
When three childhood best friends pull a prank gone wrong, they invent the imaginary Ricky Stanicky to get them out of trouble! Twenty years after creating this ‘friend,’ Dean, JT, and Wes (Zac Efron, Andrew Santino, and Jermaine Fowler) still use the nonexistent Ricky as a handy alibi for their immature behavior. When their spouses and partners get suspicious and demand to finally meet the fabled Mr. Stanicky, the guilty trio decide to hire washed-up actor and raunchy celebrity impersonator “Rock Hard” Rod (John Cena) to bring him to life. But when Rod takes his role of a lifetime too far, they begin to wish they’d never invented Ricky in the first place. From director Peter Farrelly and featuring additional cast members, including William H. Macy, Lex Scott Davis, and Anja Savcic.
Have you ever told a lie so bold you needed to invent a person to cover your ass? How much trouble do you think these friends will face when their loved ones discover Ricky Stanicky is a fraud? In the comments below, let us know what you think about the Ricky Stanicky trailer.
The post Ricky Stanicky trailer: John Cena and Zac Efron star in a Peter Farrelly comedy about a made-up friend who infiltrates the lives of three liars appeared first on JoBlo.
Two weeks ago, news broke that actor Kaitlyn Dever was joining the cast for the second season of HBO’s The Last Of Us TV series—which is still floating along without a release date, with “some time in 2025” the best anybody in TV land can guess. But despite that mild ambiguity, Dever’s casting kicked off a small…
Two weeks ago, news broke that actor Kaitlyn Dever was joining the cast for the second season of HBO’s The Last Of Us TV series—which is still floating along without a release date, with “some time in 2025” the best anybody in TV land can guess. But despite that mild ambiguity, Dever’s casting kicked off a small…
Kazuma Kiryu is the face of Yakuza. With such a legacy, it’s easy to see why Yakuza has struggled to move past its steely protagonist, but even before the introduction of the charismatic Ichiban Kasuga, an obscure spinoff proved that the franchise could do just fine without the Dragon of Dojima. Fourteen years later,…
Kazuma Kiryu is the face of Yakuza. With such a legacy, it’s easy to see why Yakuza has struggled to move past its steely protagonist, but even before the introduction of the charismatic Ichiban Kasuga, an obscure spinoff proved that the franchise could do just fine without the Dragon of Dojima. Fourteen years later,…